UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer shares announcement of ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hezbollah
The peace between Israel and Hezbollah has been praised by K Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
The UK Prime Minister announced the agreement in a post on X.
https://twitter.com/Keir_Starmer/status/1861523583597515047?
The truce was “long overdue,” according to Starmer, and “will provide some measure of relief to the civilian populations of Lebanon and Northern Israel, who have suffered unimaginable consequences during the last few months of devastating conflict and bloodshed,” during his remarks.
Starmer called for the agreement to become a “lasting political solution in Lebanon, based on Security Council Resolution 1701, that will allow civilians to return to their homes permanently and for communities on both sides of the border to rebuild” in his statement.
He said that in order to achieve a lasting, sustainable peace in the Middle East, the UK and its partners would remain at the forefront of initiatives to end the current cycle of bloodshed.
“We must see immediate progress towards a ceasefire deal in Gaza, the release of all hostages, and the removal of restrictions on desperately needed humanitarian aid,” he said in his statement, drawing attention to the situation in Gaza.
Keir Starmer’s comment was made only seconds after US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared in separate addresses that Israel and Hezbollah had reached a ceasefire agreement on Tuesday (local time), after months of fighting that had claimed hundreds of lives.
Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, emphasized that the “length” of any truce would be contingent on “what happens in Lebanon.”
“We retain complete freedom of military action with the full knowledge of the United States. We will strike if Hezbollah breaks the deal and attempts to arm itself. We will strike if it attempts to reestablish terrorist infrastructure close to the border. Netanyahu said, “We will attack if it launches a rocket, digs a tunnel, or brings in a truck with rockets.”
According to CNN, the protracted battle between Israel and Lebanon started on October 8 of last year when Hezbollah launched an offensive on Israeli-controlled territory in support of Hamas and Palestinians in Gaza.
Following this incident, there were a number of border skirmishes that culminated in Israel’s mid-September military operation.
Israel has launched a ground assault into the battle, killing numerous Hezbollah officials, including Hassan Nasrallah, one of the group’s founders, and injuring hundreds more in an attack using exploding pagers. Despite continuous attempts to negotiate a truce, the situation is still unstable.
